Editing improvements

Track patching

We have some major changes to the way the track patching (how you decide where video and audio go when you either drag a clip to the timeline or add to the timeline using the keyboard).  With EDIUS 5 we had "sync mode" on or off.  This meant that when you inserted a clip either every clip on every track moved, or just the ones on the track on which you are inserting moved.  Now we have sync locks per track - so you can decide which tracks stay in sync and which do not.  All on is the same as sync mode on.

Instead of the options to click on the track header and choose to put audio track 1, or two etc on the track you now have the "V" and "A1" and "A2" as seen on this screen shot which you either drag up and down using the mouse or move using keyboard short cuts. 

The new "mode bar" above the zoom slider lets you set whether the audio comes in as a stereo pair or two mono tracks whether EDIUS should ignore clip linking or not, and the usual insert/overwrite and snap modes (all the buttons shown can be customised of course and have their own keyboard shortcuts).

One nice new addition is what happens when you drag clips on to the timeline.  If you drag to a VA track the audio and video goes on this track if while dragging you decide to put it on a high V track the audio automatically jumps down to the first available "audio only" track.  So it is now quicker to drag an drop clips and separate audio and video into different tracks (as you would with Adobe Premiere Pro) or to a VA track.

You can select more than one track as well so now when you perform a keyboard action it can be applied to many different tracks at once.

Right click when dragging to the timeline

When you add a clip to the timeline by dragging you can right click on the place you want the clip to go and are presented with this screen letting you insert, overwrite or replace the clips.

There have also been some new new keyboard short cuts added so you can slip, slide and perform other editing options just by holding a couple of keys.  You can also easily copy a clip by holding the right keys (all this information will be included on our EDIUS 6 tutorial DVD which will be released towards the end of 2010)

Proxy mode

EDIUS has a new mode called proxy mode.  You can get EDIUS to create low-res "proxy" versions of your clips.  These are a lot smaller and easier to use than full res files. For example a 1 hour standard defination DV file which is approx 13GB is about 500Mb as a proxy.   You just select the clips in the bin and tell EDIUS to create your proxies, which it does in the background as you work.

These proxies have two purposes:

1. When you are on the timeline and EDIUS cannot keep up with your effects you switch in to proxy mode and work at a lower resolution, which means it can play more layers of effects.  It is as simple as pressing a button.  Now EDIUS is so good at realtime performance even with hard-to-use AVCHD full HD footage, that you may wonder when you will use this.  Since EDIUS can editing footage which is far bigger than HD these days you may use it when editing very high resolution footage, or may use it when you have many layers of effects on the timeline and EDIUS simply can't keep up.

2.  You can use proxies in conjunction with the "field editing" option to transfer a low resolution version to a different machine, for example a laptop, work on the project there, and then update the main editing machine with the full resolution files later.

Check in check out

To copy your project to a different computer for offline editing choose "check out".  This dialogue appears and you choose what to copy across to the other computer - low res proxy files, hires files etc..

This then locks the project on the main computer and makes a new one with all the clips needed on the second PC.  You then edit merrily away on the second PC, add in new media etc as needed.  Then when you want to return the edit to the main machine you "check in".  This then updates the main computer, notices any files you have added and copies them across to the main computer and generally sorts everything out for you.

When you check out you can either use low res proxies, so you can fit a lot of clips on a small hard drive, which also do not take too long to copy, or use full resolution files.

This does not stop you copying and moving projects in the way you have been working with EDIUS 5.  It is an extra tool to keep track of your projects as you move it around.  I particularly like the way it notices if you have added any files and copies them back into the main project.

Full screen playback

Another new addition is the ability to play an edit full screen - either on the main screen or any one of up to 10 monitors attached to your computer.  In this example I have the standard two monitors on my PC and I am running the edit full screen on the second.

Most editing programs can do this and it is a welcome addition.  It is not as good as using special hardware like the Grass Valley HDSPARK or HDSTORM, however, very useful if editing on a laptop, for example, where you do not have the option of using a SPARK or STORM.  The EDIUS second screen playback is actually very good and does not have some of the "tearing" that we normally get with most editing systems second screen playback.

Since EDIUS can do larger than HD sizes this is also useful.  All the video devices, like SPARK and STORM do standard HD sizes.  A PC screen can do bigger than HD size and using this playback method you will be able to see higher resolutions.

You access this either by selecting the option on the menu, assigning a keyboard short cut, or just double clicking in the playback window.  You can also have this working as well as other output - so we have had DV out working at the same time as having full screen PC playback.  Useful for checking out how the picture looks in both media.

Zebra display

The Zebra display quickly shows you if areas of the image are over exposed.  This being EDIUS you can customise the level at which an image will Zebra and even choose the colour that the zebra pattern appears.

Audio mixer improvements

Grass Valley have added some improvements to the audio mixer with panning controls as well as levels audio levels for each track.

The "clip" option now means you can adjust the audio level of the clip (the orange line that appears on every audio clip) using the mixer.

Time remapping

The time remapping has also had a welcome addition.  When you perform a time remap - slowing sections of the clip down, the clip may get longer, but its duration on the timeline stays the same.  This means bits of the clip are no longer seen and you would have to pop out of time remap, make the clip longer then pop back in.

Now you just tick "full range" and you can see the entire clip and re-organise the footage as much as you like.  Once finished you then drag out the clip to be a bit longer on the timeline.

You can also set the field and blending options when in this effect.  Nice.